A Giveaway

UPDATE:: This giveaway is now closed (although you’re welcome to keep telling me your favorite Christmas memories!). Congratulations to Jefuremu Njambilo! Use the contact form to send me your address & I’ll ship it out today! Thanks to all for your memories & traditions shared here! So glad you all stopped by. And thanks for checking out Freeset and their beautiful work.

As we celebrate the extravagant gift of a King coming down, right into the midst of our broken world, I’m thrilled to offer this small gift, a giveaway here today, this lovely teal & parchment bag, shown here.

This fall I had the joy of meeting Kristi Griem. Kristi works with Freeset, a fair trade business that offers employment to women trapped in Kolkata’s sex trade. If your heart beats fast for freedom and justice, or if you are just beginning to learn about the dark world of trafficking, take a minute to learn more about Freeset, the lovely products they create (that you can purchase!) and listen to their beautiful stories.To win this beautiful bag, just leave a comment below sharing one thing you do to celebrate this sweet season, great or small, simple or extravagant.

Giveaway ends Friday, December 16th, 2011 at midnight. A winner will be chosen at random and announced and contacted Saturday morning, and the bag sent first thing Monday, to get there just in time for gifting or enjoying!{{Giveaway is closed!}}

Kgustafson81

Every Christmas Eve at my parents home, we have somewhat of a Smorgasbord. Lots of “normal” holiday food and just as many Swedish yummies ( or not – herring, yuk!!) I’m thrilled to be back home for this Christmas season with my family.

Thebrookefamily

Each year we bundle up grab hot cocoa and drive around looking at Christmas lights, my kids love it!

Dudsox

We gather as a family for Christmas Eve Mass. After Mass, we drive around for about an hour looking at all the beautiful lights and decorations. Then we go home to eat food and cookies that Mike and I have prepared using his mom’s recipes. That way she is still with us during Christmas time. I must confess, after the food has been eaten, we all sit down to watch Christmas Vacation

Lisa D. :o)

I get to drive home and spend time with my family! I spend most of Christmas Eve baking cookies and desserts, and we have the most delicious Christmas brunch with my aunt and her family. Lots of Christmas music, hot chocolate, peppermint mochas, and reading books by the fire. :o)

Mearmom

We set up the manager set somewhere prominent. Baby Jesus is missing. We await his arrival with joyful anticipation. On Christmas morning – the first present we open is the most beautifully wrapped gift under the tree – usually in silver or gold wrapping with a beautiful bow. Inside is the Baby Jesus – God’s gift to us on this special day. We then place the baby in the manger scene.

Marilyn

For many years, on the Monday before Christmas, our family has traveled into NYC to hear The Messiah performed at Carnegie Hall. Our children love this tradition, relishing the worshipful music, and sometimes travel far (in their older age) to enjoy this with us.

Lauraklafonte

We always gather with my family at my parents house and have lots of goodies to eat. We don’t really do anything super specific but really just spend time together and sometimes open an early present.

Kokesson

Since we are often overseas and away from traditional Christmas Eve services, we have each member of our family do something on Christmas Eve or create something as a gift to our family to help us celebrate that night. When Anna was really little, she would dress up like Mary and take care of Baby Jesus. Now she’s more likely to sing a song for us. Isaiah always builds us a nativity scene out of legos. I usually read and/or write something to share. Gregg reads the Christmas story. One year the we had other kids with us and they all tried to act out a play for us — it was not meant to be a comedy but ended up hilarious! Kim Okesson

Ladybugflier36

We spend a lot of time together as a family with all our extended families. It is time making sweet memories. Especially now that there are more cousins being added! We bake goodies to share and in exchange get others. At my in laws home on Christmas Eve we put out reindeer food in the yard. Not to long after we hear jingle bells and clomping on the roof (uncles in the attic!) The little ones get excited and Grandma goes to the door and there on the steps is a big bag of gifts. For desert we celebrate the 4 grandkid’s birthdays within those two weeks. On Christmas day with my family we read the Christmas story and have a birthday cake for Jesus and sing to Him.

Anonymous

One of my very favorite things is waiting for my parents to come back from Haiti, and we all go Christmas tree shopping together to cut down our own tree at a tree farm. GREAT memories! So much fun!

Catherine

That’s lovely; Annie, thanks for sharing.
One thing I like to do during this season is go to the local Forest Park Nature Center for their nighttime walks down woodland trails lit with luminarias… then warm up with hot cocoa by the fire!
May this holiday season be a bountiful one and full of joy.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1079502927 Allyson Joy Nagle

One of the traditions that we do with our family to celebrate this “sweet season” is to make Buckeyes, Chocolate covered Oreos, pretzels and whatever else together. I cherish the time spent with my mom and sister-n-law as we do it. In addition to this, I am looking forward to reading the Christmas Story for the first time this year out of the Jesus Storybook Bible with my family.

Chrissy M

What a wonderful organization, I love buying with a purpose knowing that my money is not just going into a money hungry executives pocket….But giving to something that is going to make a difference!! I also love your blog, I wish I had just a tiny bit of your crafty, writing, blogging talent!!

Tsteen14

I bake the cookies for my Dad that my grandmother used to make. And then my uncle found out and wanted a batch, so then we needed 2 batches. And then my aunt found out and now we are making 3 batches.

Mom

Annie, I love your blog and I love baking old family recipes that I used
to bake with my mother and grandmother with the newest little members
of our family! Great messes and lots of sugary cookies ….

Jefuremu Njambilo

They has been many sympols for imancipation in life such like this
wonderful bag, and as much for me and my family with the Lord’s help as
we are here in America, something i never dreamt about. For the first
time we have a Christmas tree in our home never have we ever celebrated
Christmas together as a family with gifts under our litte Christmas
tree, as we ministered in Africa we always had more wanting issues
pressing us that we did not get time to think of ourselves as a family.
Spending time in this way with my family and having a chance to
celebrate Christmas together is a sympol in our family of unity and
bondage and experiences i have never thought I would experince moreso
another dimension in our life of creating traditions or maybe the Lord
will keep making our family adventrous experiencing different cultures
as he sends us on His mission for the Lord, we are lookng foward to some
great food, and fun, Merry Christmas and more power to this powerful
ministry amen.

http://somuchshoutingsomuchlaughter.com/ suzannah {ShoutLaughLove}

we’re spending christmas day together, just the four of us, for the first time. christmas eve will be at our own church for the first time, too, and include dinner with family friends. i’m really looking forward to simple and together:)

Melissa Clayton

Love your blog & the cause that this bag represents. Pretty cool what can happen when we are creative. During the holifays, esp. over the past couple of years I give a small gift to people I don’t know well, but see sometimes. Like this year, I got a super sweet elderly woman who says “hi” to me on my way to work small gifts. I looked forward to it for days!

Jaime Reed

I feel like we are still in the process of developing our family Christmas traditions. I love seeing my children really get it. A few years ago, a friend gave us the “What God Wants for Christmas” activity. My kids love to do that now, even though the final box is no longer a surprise.

Bethany

We practice the age old family tradition of yelling “stop” mid-present-opening to throw away all the wrapping paper.

kimberlee

What a beautiful bag. We have a birthday cake & sing to Jesus.

http://theletterdrawer.wordpress.com Caroline

One thing I do to celebrate this sweet season is relate everything we do at Christmas, (including St. Nick and why he fills our stockings) to Jesus, the whole reason we have the holiday. I try to show my kids how everything we do all year round points to Jesus but I often fail miserably, it’s a little easier to stay focused at Christmas if only to counter act the pervasive consumerist obsessions. It’s not quite so bad in Costa Rica as in the states b/c a lot of these families just can’t afford to be so lush in their spending.

Welcome to Annie at Home.
I'm Annie, and cataloged here
are my adventures in playing
house & discovering home.
So glad you're here!